internet lab | Podcast Season: 2 - Episode: 6 / Release date: 27-4-2023

1:1 with Ernesto Falcon
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

Episode Highlights

00:00 Intro

00:45 What’s Wrong With the EC Consultation on the Future of Telecoms

05:31 Outro

Key Quotes

"The thing about Internet access (...) and what the consultation gets wrong as a foundational premise (...): the future is abundance at lowering cost."

1 / 7

"Fibre optics: (...) this is the kind of wireline access, the kind of infrastructure that will deliver not just Internet that's ready for today, but the Internet that will be ready for decades."

2 / 7

"Simply because of the unique principles behind the fibre optic wires (...) you are going to be able to rely on the cost effective improvements in hardware. (...) The price and cost will be stable once you've laid that wire out there."

3 / 7

"The premise behind the fair share debate and the idea that it costs a lot of money to deploy and run the Internet are very faulty, because what (...) operators have to rationalise and pay for is the deployment of the wire, that's a one time cost."

4 / 7

"ISPs laying new networks are actually reducing their overall ongoing cost, their operations costs, because of the efficiencies that are in those wires."

5 / 7

"Despite that constant growth, the cost of running those access lines is dropping, and dropping fast, saving billions of dollars. (...) The discussions are on the wrong foot."

6 / 7

"The premise that we have to figure out how to pay extra to maintain and run the Internet is faulty at its foundation. (...) This consultation simply (...) ignores realities of engineering and economics."

7 / 7

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Available On

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About Our Guest

Ernesto Falcon | Senior Legislative Counsel - Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

Ernesto Falcon is Senior Legislative Counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) with a primary focus on intellectual property, open Internet issues, broadband access, and competition policy. In the US, his work includes pushing the state of California to pass the strongest net neutrality law in the country in response to federal repeal efforts.

Relevant Resources

Network Usage Fees Will Harm European Consumers and Businesses

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

Ernesto Falcon

1:1 with Ernesto FalconElectronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)